Monday, July 8, 2013

Stage 10 Preview and Profile 2013 Tour De France

The apparent ease of the 4 jersey wearers belies a hectic first week

The General Classification
contenders will see only two significant challenges in the coming week before
the next rest day. Even the mountain jersey hunters will have a few days off. In
fact, the next four stages only include a combined total of 2 available
mountain points.

The next test for the GC
riders comes with the stage-11 time trial from Avranches to Mont Saint-Michel
on Wednesday. After that, the next test is the stage-15 mountaintop finish on
Mont Ventoux.

The brief but potent sojourn
into the Pyrenees created a tense pecking order among the contenders, and now
it is time to let the fast men grab some limelight again. The sprinters will
have several opportunities in the coming week to stretch their legs on some
flat terrain. Stages 10, 12, 13, and possibly 14 could all end with bunch
sprints. But let’s take them one at a time.

Stage 10 on the map

The peloton have taken the
longest transfer of the race from yesterday’s stage 9 finish in the Pyrenees, all
the way up to the Loire-Atlantique department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in
the northwest for stage 10. Tuesday’s stage 10 from Saint-Gildas-des-Bois to
Saint-Malo is 197 kilometers of relatively flat roads traveling north through
Brittany. Along the way, the views should continue to be spectacular.

The finish town of Saint-Malo
is an intriguing walled city on the English Channel with much history. An old
stronghold of French corsairs and pirates, Saint-Malo’s fortifications endured
one of the bitterest battles following the Normandy invasion in the Second
World War. The Tour De France will host its own battle there on Tuesday between
the sprinters who have come to claim their booty.

Stage 10 Profile

The intermediate sprint
point comes at kilometer 127.5, and the only categorized climb of the day is a
category-4 veritable bump in the road 55k before the finish. Peter Sagan has
been fortifying his lead in the green jersey competition and will look to
increase that lead on Tuesday. Mark Cavendish, André Greipel, Marcel Kittel and
others will have something to say about that.

Unfortunately for all the
sprinters, Sagan’s current lead in that competition will be unassailable on
Tuesday, as he holds a 93-point lead over second-place Greipel. Sagan will
definitely be in green again for the next stage unless he is out of the race
for some reason. In fact it does not seem likely that any of the jerseys will
change hands on Tuesday.

Stage 10 final kms to the finish

MY PICK: André
Greipel. His lead-out train is strong and organized, and he will be motivated
to narrow the margin between himself and Peter Sagan.